


The Gate at the bottom of the garden

by Flick262



Category: The Gate Anime
Genre: Anime, British, Dragons, F/F, F/M, Magic goings on, O/Cs as far as the eye can see, Politics, Stiff Upper Lip, The Gate - Freeform, WW2, Winston Churchill is too old for this crap!, awkward moments just for fun, if you don't know what machines and weapons i'm talking about, kiwi, look them up!, looking for a beta reader, lots and lots of politics, not sure where i'm going with this!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2018-12-26 00:19:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12047367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flick262/pseuds/Flick262
Summary: Instead of opening in modern Japan, The Gate opened in Britain in 1941 as the Second World War raged. Britain, having fought back the imperial army sends a small expeditionary force to hold a bridgehead until the war is won. (This is base more of the Anime than the books, I am sorry)





	The Gate at the bottom of the garden

**Author's Note:**

> This is just me having a spot of fun, I thoroughly enjoy the Gate series and look forward hopefully to season 3. In the meantime, welcome to British and Kiwi shindigs in The Gate. If you have any ideas please feel free to let me know, this series is designed to follow the actual series on a chapter per episode basis, it will be very similar to the original series but with differing reactions which will lead to very different actions later on.

The first sight to great General Thallus as he exited the other side of the gate was the sky, bright clear blue, so similar to home.  
His eyes lowered to survey the green and brown fields, separated by hedgerows and the occasional low stone wall.   
For a brief moment, Thallus wondered if the gate had simply led them to another part of the empire, the similarity between this new world and home was distinct to say the least.  
As his legions continued to march through the gate and take up positions Thallus allowed himself a moment of quiet(ish) reflection. When the gate had awoken on Arnus Hill, the Senate had been reluctant to allow any troops through at all for fear of loosing legions should the gate suddenly choose to close again. However, the more aggressive voices among them, as well as the emperor himself had been keen for expansion (and to intimidate the neighbouring states with imperial might) and as a result permission had been granted for the legion to be sent through the gate to create a bridgehead to guarantee the safe passage of the main imperial army. It was very noticeable that with in a fortnight of the order being issued, the vast majority of his officers’ positions had been filled, all by young noblemen eager for glory. All balls no brains as his men had been heard to suggest when they thought he wasn’t listening.   
Thallus chuckled, he was no nobleman, more interested in fine dining and womanising, no, he was a soldier. He did his duty and he served the empire. He had no interest in these young, arrogant aristocrats but unfortunately wealth talked and he reluctantly found his experienced officers replaced with brash young men who wouldn’t know one end of a sword from the other!

Suddenly, over the sounds of his army manoeuvring into position, a low buzz formed on the corners of his hearing, gathering like a fog until he was able to hear it fully. The surrounding sounds began to grow quieter as his men also grew aware of the sound, a low deep throbbing, entwined as it were with a higher pitched buzz. In the distance, two specks began to form in the air, rapidly growing as they approached faster than any dragon. The throbbing grew until with a roar that shook his ear drums two monsters unlike any beasts he’d ever seen surged overhead. The first one, with a face that gleamed like crystal had a dark green body with blackened scars on its wings and the second much smaller beast with skin the green and brown of the land, with a belly of white and black and flanks scarred by blue and red rings surged past, a sharp, staccato, drum-like sound distinctly audible. Thallus watched as his men ducked beneath the roar of the monsters, who, just as quickly as they had appeared, began to recede. However, before he could pull his attention away, the crystal-faced monster was wounded, white smoky blood pouring from its cheek as it began to turn back towards his men. The brown and green monster turned to follow as its fellow began to drop towards the ground, lower and lower until it looked as if it were to hit him. Thallus leapt from his horse and threw himself to the ground as the beast thundered overhead, so low as to snap the staff of the imperial standard with its stiff wing before slamming into the ground with a crunch, gouging a dark scar into the earth.   
As Thallus stood to watch the death of the monster, the brown and green beast circled its fallen prey before flying into the distance leaving a very shaken imperial army in its wake.   
Striding forward to heft up the fallen imperial standard, Thallus turned his eyes from the receding monster to the fallen beast only to reel back in shock as what looked to be humans began to haul themselves from the body. Were these the spirits of the beast in human form or was they victims swallowed by the creature?  
Gathering his shaken wits, Thallus kept his eyes on the men while snapping orders for his legion to continue getting into formation while summoning four knights to retrieve the beast’s humans.

 

So whaddya reckon?   
What? Nah, Adolf would be mad to invade now!  
You reckon? The bloody Luftwaffe don’t seem to think so!  
Listen you lot, that Heinkel went down around ‘ere somewhere and all you’re doing is yapping, now let’s finish patrol, see if any survived and then you can row all you want down the King’s Head.  
Listen to old beaky ‘ere, local school teacher by morning, Napoleon Bonaparte of the Chillim Home -guard by afternoon!  
“That’s corporal Bonaparte to you!  
‘ere, what’s that over there?  
“looks like we found the Heinkel!”  
Bloody ‘ell, who called up king Arthur?  
Well whoever they are they aren’t friendly lookin’ are they?  
“Christ on a bike! Is that a fuckin’ dragon?!  
They’re going after that bomber crew whoever they are!  
Shit! They shot one of those knight fellas!  
Bloody ‘ell did they just decapitate ‘im?  
Peterson! Get to the phone box down mill road, tell H.Q. we’ve got an invasion and then call the station and get the bobbies out ‘ere too! Constable Mildrew is due down ‘ere soon anyway!  
“Right sir!”  
“incoming!”  
“Argh, fuckin ‘ell, arrows!”  
“get behind the wall, section rapid fire!”  
There’s thousands of em!  
“there’s only six of us and only twenty rounds each!”  
“But we’ve got a Lewis and they’ve got fuck all, and I don’t see Jerry making a run for it so fire!”

 

General Thallus watched from his horse as the handful of brown clothed men hid behind the stone wall, one of their number fleeing on his strange wheeled mount.  
He gestured to the rank of archers beside him to lower their bows, there was no need to waste good arrows on such a cowardly foe. His men continued to pour through the gate, taking up ranked, defensive positions in the well drilled manner of the imperial army.   
“Quillus!”, he called to the commander of the first cohort.  
“Sir?”  
“Go get those savages behind the wall. Bring them back so we can learn about this land!”  
“With pleasure sir!”  
Thallus smiled grimly as Quillus’ ranks of infantry marched forward towards the low stone wall. The men from the flying beast had somehow killed one of his knights before one of their number was also killed. The rest had slain the remaining knights with loud bangs and had promptly run. Overhead, a trio of dragoons on their fire-breathing mounts soared into the blue sky, criss-crossed with faint white trails of cloud, in pursuit of the smaller beast from earlier.  
His thoughts were abruptly snapped back to the matter at by a rapid sharp beating that sounded like an alarm drum, closely followed by the screams and shouts of Quillus’ men.  
“What in the name of the Gods was that?”  
“General, Quillus’ men are coming back!”  
“I’m not blind! Go find out what happened!”  
As he looked beyond the confused and decidedly thinned ranks of Quillus’ unit, Thallus’ breath drew short at the sight of the wall, almost fifty strides out from the wall lay the bodies of almost half Quillus’ force, having fallen in their ranks where they stood.   
As his aid rushed back to his side, Thallus strained his eyes to see the arrows in his men’s bodies. His blood ran cold when he could spy none, their bodies seeming from this distance to have no wounds, much like his knights.  
His eyes swung to his aid, the young man’s face looking pale and drawn in the gentle sunshine.  
“What happened?”  
“It was that sound, general, the sound of the alarm drum! The men were close enough to see the brown men, who appeared to be armed with wooden clubs which they rested on the wall, they thought they meant it to surrender. As they reached the spot you see the bodies at now, that sound erupted, along with bright flashes from the clubs, the men in the first three ranks were struck down almost instantly along with Quillus!”  
“Sorcery?”  
“It might be sir, but in that case the dragoons should be able to deal with them!”  
“We have to wait for their return, for now tell the men to spread out, we will try to encircle them so they cannot escape.”   
As his men hurriedly spread their lines, and cohorts began to advance on the flanks, Thallus turned his eyes to the strange, cloud-like trails in the sky, what could they mean? Were these men in brown sorcerers like the ones back home? And if so, why had they killed his men? Sorcerers weren’t supposed to kill!

 

*Riiiinnnnnnggggg* *Riiii-*  
“Sergeant Green of Chillim Police!”  
“Yes, young Peterson, isn’t it?”  
“What!!???”  
“Are you having a laugh son?”  
“Understood, right away!”  
“Everything all right sergeant?”  
“Get to the vicarage and tell them to ring the bell!”  
“Jerry Sir?”  
“Everyone else get to the cars, weapons are being distributed at the door, Philips take a Webley and go door to door, make sure everyone stays inside and secure the post office, also notify the home-guard boys at the station!”  
“Yes sir!”  
“I thought we were supposed to stay away from Jerry when they landed sir?”  
“This isn’t Jerry!”

 

“Sir! Sir!”  
“What is it lieutenant?”  
“Reports from Kent sir, Home-guard and police appear to be under attack from “Ancient Romans” sir! R.A.F. reports of flying lizards as well!”  
“What? Has Goering got dragons?”   
“don’t think so sir.”  
“What units are in the area?”  
“There’s a column from the 1st Armoured Division out on manoeuvres with units from the 2nd New Zealand Division.”  
“Send them in at once, get them fighter cover and artillery support as soon as possible.”  
“fighter command can’t spare anything sir, they’re sending a flight of the Whirlwind heavy fighters with Blenheims instead, the navy says they can send a landing contingent by train to arrive in an hour from Folkstone with railway guns arriving in two!”  
“Do it!”

 

As the last Thallus’ men took up their positions, a burning arrow arched into the sky on the right flank, announcing the 2nd cohort and their auxiliary’s safe emplacement. There’d be no escape for the brown men that way.   
“Excellent,” he chuckled. “Now to finish them off with arrows from all si…”  
His speech was interrupted by a most incredible sight. Before his very eyes, two sleek, gleaming black creatures speed with a purring grumble up the road behind the wall, straight towards where the brown men hid. His eyes gleamed as he watched their rapid approach, hopefully these creatures would cause the brown men to panic and flee their position.  
To his surprise however, the men in brown, instead of fleeing, began to cheer as the creatures drew to a halt beside them. Quickly realising the beasts to in league with the brown men, Thallus turned to his commander of archers. “Kill those dark beasts immediately, we cannot let them near our forces!”

“What’s going on here “Corporal?” young Peterson seems to think you’ve got an invas… bloody hell!”  
“Yep that’s them, they’ve killed the pilot of that Heinkel in the next field and the rest of the fled. They’ve also got bloody dragons!”  
“Shit”  
“Yep”  
“Constable Mildrew is due on his beat any second, we’ll send him back with a full report!”  
“Sir...”  
“What is it constable?”  
“Looks like they’re about to...”  
“Take cover!”  
“Arrows?!!”  
“Yep!”  
“Well explaining that to the chief constable is going to be interesting!”  
“First time I’ve seen a wheeled hedgehog!”  
“Shut up! Oh bugger, here they come!”  
“Home-guard! Fix bayonets!”  
“Truncheons ready.”  
“Constables hold fire till you can guarantee a hit!”

 

General Thallus was by now thoroughly confused by this new world, the black beasts (or were they some kind of cart?) had disgorged men in black with tall black and silver helmets who ran to the wall with the brown men.   
Luckily imperial arrows had ensured the black creatures were no longer a threat. Even from where he stood he could spy the arrows sticking from two creatures like a small forest.

With a roar, the survivors of the 1st cohort supported by the second cohort surged forward in their formation, their swords drawn and their shields raised.   
The dreaded drumming sound began again, his men began to fall but suddenly, as abruptly as it had stopped, the drumming stopped and his men pressed forward, now within spitting distance of the wall!

“What’s happened?”  
“Bloody thing’s jammed!”  
“Here they come!”

The tide of armoured men were now close enough to see the stubble on their chins

“Fire!”  
The first two ranks fell but on came the rest  
“Fire at bloody will!”  
“Lord preserve us!”  
The first soldiers leapt over the wall!  
“Arrghh!”  
“Take that!”  
“Sorcerer scum!”  
“Shit shit shit!”  
“Fuck you bas…Arrghh!”  
“Die damn you die!”  
“For the emperor!”  
“Pull back!”  
“Get your hands off me your roman git!”  
A battle between several hundred imperial soldiers and just over a dozen constables and home-guard in close quarters was unfortunately a very short one with heavy casualties on both sides. However, as the few English survivors were forced to their knees a rumbling filled the air, the ground seeming to quiver slightly.  
As the soldiers of the 1st and 2nd cohorts turned to survey their prisoners, yet another horror greeted their eyes.  
Roaring down the road, faster than any horse and coming from the direction the 3rd cohort had journeyed not half an hour earlier came a column of elephantine beasts. Their trunks were straight and rigid, belching fire towards the massed ranks of the legion around the gate, throwing men and parts of men high into the air, the rapid drumming once more filled the air as the sons of the empire fell in droves.  
Behind the elephantines came more creatures who released masses of more brown men, some wearing helmets not unlike the adanti people back home, others wearing broad-brimmed hats with red strips around them. These brown men surged forward their brown clubs tipped with gleaming blades as they slammed into the swirling, falling ranks of the empire. General Thallus fell to his knees, his shoulders slumping as he witnessed the slaughter. His ears rung with the screams and shouts of his men, almost drowned out by the roars of the brown men and their elephantines.  
A scream was ripped from his lips as pained slashed across his side, slicing his armour like paper and causing him to fall back, his eyes straining at the now ominous white streaks across the sky, as consciousness began to slip away and darkness began to close around his vision, he swore he saw the outlines of more of the flying beasts diving toward his men, screaming as they descended like birds of prey.

 

”What have we learned from the prisoners general?”  
“Not much prime minister, the language barrier is proving a hard nut to crack.”  
“We must act fast prime minister, who knows what else is through that gate? If another attack comes through at the same time as a German invasion? We can’t run that risk!”  
“Need I remind you Air Vice-Marshall that we are expecting Herr Hitler to invade to invade at any moment? Do you suggest that we tie up vital men and resources to defend against an enemy that might or might not come?”  
“That is exactly what I suggest Prime Minister, a small expeditionary force, sent through the gate to secure a bridgehead and stop any further invasions attempts in their tracks.”   
“And how will I explain this to cabinet? Or to the house for that matter?”  
“I would suggest you don’t prime minister.”  
“This “Special Zone” might well prove to be a useful tool in ending this war sir, it would seem the inhabitants haven’t left the medieval period yet, this could leave coal, oil and iron resources open for use!”  
“Very well, gentlemen I want a small expeditionary force dispatched through this gate, it will require air support and a supply chain, we will not abandon these men just because they seem to have left this world! We will also keep this confidential on the highest levels. Any high-ranking officers permanently dispatched will have to have their deaths faked. I’m sure we have a few departments that will be able to help you in that department. Now if that is all gentlemen I have a meeting in the house in fifteen minutes.”

 

1 month later.

“Right you lot! Form up! Form up!”  
“Presssseeeeennnnnnntttttt arms!!!!”

“This morning, gentlemen, we are making history, we are heading to a new world! Many of you know the enemy we face, you met them when they tried to conquer our islands. Now it's our turn, let the men of this islands of explorers and traders with our island brethren from across the oceans march together into this brave new world!”

“Shoullllldddeeeeerrrr arms!”  
“All vehicles start!”  
“Right turn!”  
“Slow ahead!”  
“By the left! Quick march!”  
“All commanders, close your hatches!”

“First units have entered the gate prime minister.”  
“Excellent, let us hope to God this doesn’t come back to bite us.”


End file.
